Exodus 10:21-23 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward the sky so that darkness spreads over Egypt—darkness that can be felt.” So Moses stretched out his hand toward the sky, and total darkness covered all Egypt for three days. No one could see anyone else or move about for three days. Yet all the Israelites had light in the places where they lived.

Each of the plagues that God brought upon Egypt through Moses had spiritual meaning as well as physical. This one had to be terrifying for the Egyptians, but it was simply a physical manifestation of their spiritual reality. Since “light” is the theme of our readings for the next several weeks, at least, we will be running into many passages that talk about spiritual illumination, “enlightenment.” We use that terminology fairly freely to describe flashes of understanding, but here God used the reverse to make His point. People who close the eyes of their hearts to God are very much in the dark, but for the most part they don’t realize it. In the world today it seems like the divide between light and darkness is getting sharper and more obvious. Sometimes we want to cry out, “How can they not see?” They are in darkness as real as what the Egyptians experienced here. It’s fascinating that it specifies, “darkness that can be felt.” Now, that’s dark! We don’t know how the Israelites had light, nor what form that took, but the contrast was certainly stark. The thing is, those who have light are not to lord it over those who don’t. We are to pray God’s grace and mercy for them, because as the story of Saul/Paul illustrates, sometimes those most in the dark are transformed into carriers of light! If you don’t recognize the darkness, you don’t know how wonderful the light is, and conversely, if you take the light for granted, you don’t know how terrible the dark can be. Several of the passages we’ll be reading as we progress through this theme come to mind, but I’ll just take each one as it comes.

I was raised in a home that had a great deal of light, I’m grateful to say. My parents were totally committed disciples of Jesus Christ, and they were also intellectually open and curious. As I grew up, I saw how different most people were from my family, and sadly, that helped trap me in pride – which is in the territory of darkness! God was more than gracious to me, showing me my spiritual and intellectual stupidity, and I came to a deep appreciation for C. S. Lewis’ observation that when we get to heaven, we will all discover that we were wrong somewhere. At this point, my task is in bringing light to all who will receive it, but I must never seek to do it from an attitude of pride, but always in gratitude for God’s grace.

Father, thank You indeed for Your light. Thank You for the many, many Scriptures that have come to mind as I have been writing this morning. I look forward to writing on each one when we get to it! May I indeed be a carrier of Your light to all I encounter, for their blessing and Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!